And from there, it's just a couple small steps to the realization that the GOP never, ever, ever will accept health care reform in any way. There's a big difference between simply opposing the plan and actively working to destroy it by any means necessary. Steve has finally accepted the former, but the trick is of course that the GOP is actively engaged across the board in the latter.Maybe now would be a good time to remind the relevant players that there are different political parties for a reason. Democrats and Republicans are -- I hope you're sitting down -- supposed to disagree.
They have very different policy agendas, driven by different worldviews. That they're struggling to agree on how to pass the most sweeping overhaul of the health care system isn't surprising; that they're trying to overcome this is.
A.L. noted this week:
For as long as I can remember, the Democratic party has fought to increase the government's role in providing health care coverage for Americans while the Republican party has fought to reduce the government's role. The Democrats are responsible for Medicare, Medicaid, and S-CHIP; the Republicans fought all of those initiatives. On a policy level, the Democrats believe that the best health and cost outcomes can be achieved by increasing access and encouraging widespread use of routine and preventative medical care. Republicans, on the other hand, have routinely identified the problem as over-consumption of care. Their proposals to fix the system inevitably involve significant deregulation with the goal of encouraging the use of high-deductible policies to try to discourage personal consumption of health care. Nearly every Democrat (including the blue dogs and "centrists") believes this to be bad policy.
In other words, there is virtually no common ground between the parties. The parties don't even see eye-to-eye regarding basic goals and policy assumptions.
There's nothing wrong with this. It's nice and pleasant when both sides can agree, and President Obama probably hoped the situation was so severe, Republicans would put aside many of their preconceived ideological objections to reform, and work in good faith towards obvious, common-sense solutions. That's not going to happen, of course, but that's not necessarily awful. The political system expects the parties to argue with one another. It's a feature, not a bug.
It looks like the opposition party is going to criticize and object to the Democrats' health care reform effort. That's what opposition parties do -- they oppose.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) asked the other day, "[D]o you want to be non-partisan and get nothing? Or do you want to be partisan and end up with a good health- care plan? That is the choice."
The process will probably go much smoother once negotiators come to grips with this.
If Obamacare passes, the GOP is done for a generation. I've said that for quite some time now. Any Democrat behind passage can turn to their constituents and say "Democrats helped get you and your family health insurance. What have the Republicans done for you? They did everything they could to try to stop this." And the voters will nod their heads and go "You're right. Thank you."
They know it's a generational bribe, but it's a necessary and useful one. One in six Americans lacks health insurance. The Republicans will never spend a dime to fix that. Ever.
So the Republicans are scared, truly frightened. This is why we're seeing such hateful, over-the-top rhetoric and accusations against Obama, such an ardent effort to dehumanize the President and his supporters as something less than American, something less than human, as Those Who Are The Enemy. If Obama is successful on health care, he'll go a long way towards dismantling the Pretty Hate Machine that has sprung up since 1990 or so. Most importantly, he'll prove that government can actually help the people.
The Republicans can't afford that. They've bet the farm on using fear and hatred to control America for far too long. If Obama comes along and dismantles that, they have nothing. They become powerless.
It has to die, or the GOP does. It is, quite honestly, an existential battle.
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